Grand Jury Wanted To Indict Ramsey Parents

I have reported on the JonBenet Ramsey murder before as it has always been of intense interest to me. It is a polarizing case that may never be solved, but occasionally something trickles out of the woodwork that brings this event right back into our consciousness.

For those of you who have been on the moon for a while, we are speaking of a 6 year old beauty queen, JonBenet Ramsey who was murdered in the basement of her parents Boulder Co. home on Christmas day, 1996. She was strangled via a crude garrote and also suffered at least one severe blow to the head.

JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy were under the spotlight of suspicion more than anyone, however, many avenues were investigated including friends of the family, intruders and even the young girls brother Burke who was only 9 at the time.

Now, according to ABC news, it is being reported that a Grand Jury was planning to indict the Ramsey parents in 1999 on allegations of child abuse as a cause of death.

This may be a surprise to some, but others among you are probably sure that this is the right way to go.

Here’s the report from ABC News:

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(snip) After meeting for more than a year, a grand jury found sufficient evidence to indict the couple on charges of child abuse resulting in death, as first reported Sunday by the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper and confirmed by two separate sources by ABC News.

“This grand jury, in effect, came up with a compromise finding, ‘No, it’s not murder,’ but, ‘Yes, we think they were responsible’ for the death based on abuse,” ABC News legal analyst Dan Abrams said.

But District Attorney Alex Hunter refused to sign off on the grand jury’s decision, saying there was too little proof.

“I and my prosecution task force believe we do not have sufficient evidence to warrant the filing of charges against anyone who has been investigated at this time,” Hunter said then.

Hunter believed a conviction would be impossible. Abrams said that he agrees with the decision.

“I’ve seen the majority of the case files and I think Alex Hunter made the right call,” he said. “I think there simply was not enough evidence to move forward.”

Although still open, this is fast turning into a cold case. The more time that goes by, the less opportunities present themselves.

I’d always been suspicious of Burke, but the abuse scenario fits pretty well. Putting young children on display in beauty pageants is abuse all by itself in my book. However, that’s another story.

Patsy Ramsey died of ovarian cancer in 2006 and John remarried. JonBenet would have been 23 this year.

I grew up in rural NWPA, surrounded in forest. I took an early interest in cryprozoology and sharks and have read many books on various crypto subjects such as Bigfoot and Megalodon over the years.
I am not a professional writer or a journalist, but I do the best I can. I have a quirky, obscurely dry and sometimes sarcastic sense of humor than can get me in trouble. Some love me and some hate me, but I am who I am.

I have always suspected the parents knew more than they ever said. Also, this case coming on the heels of the OJ Simpson verdict I felt like the publicity and controversy of that case influenced how this one was handled to the detriment of justice.

For another very twisted and indecipherable murder case and investigation check out a documentary called “The Staircase.” I can practically guarantee you will change your mind on guilty or innocent several times over the course of this case.

Scott_McMan

Speaking of guilt or innocence Henry, I’ve always done my level best to not jump to conclusions. We’ve all seen those cases where everyone was so sure a certain person was guilty only to find the person ending up exonerated.

It wasn’t too long ago that Spike Lee was promoting violence against someone based on hearsay and while that’s bad enough, he gave out a wrong address to potential revenge attackers.

When will we learn to allow things to take due course before we point our accusing finger.

Of course the JonBenet case has taken due course and then some. Any guess at this point is not going to change anything.

Nor did I say that Jon Benet’s parents were guilty, only that in my opinion based on the information made public that they knew more than they were saying. I don’t kid myself that all the information is presented to a jury, in fact what I have seen of a trial is more about preventing evidence from being presented. If it were about presenting all the evidence there would be no need for a trial or a jury.

As for either Jon Benet, or “The Staricase” (which is settled in the course of the movie) so long as I present only my opinion and not claim to “know”, as I have nothing to do with any judgment and am removed by both time and geography I can’t feel too guilty about forming an opinion.

I understand what you are saying and even agree that there is a difference between what we see in entertainment (i.e. a mystery novel or movie thriller where often the point is to guess the result) and what effects actual people, but both cases simply point out that we are hard wired to make those sorts of judgments as part of our survival instinct.